Its that time of year when we reflect back on the prior 12 months look ahead to the next 12 and set personal priorities Ive heard that by February 80 of New Years resolutions are on their way to failure This has not been my personal experience Year to year Ive managed to see most of my goals through while allowing for some goals to go into year two Here is a summary of my reflection on this realization and a few tips on how to win at New Years resolutions Have a sense of humor about it We often put more on our goals list than we can accomplish in one year As the expression goes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs We underestimate the effort and overestimate our capacity to get things done As a result we start to fall behind on these resolutions as our lives get busier in February or as we exit the holiday Its hard to admit to ourselves that we wont get done everything we want to do Its hard to keep things off of our list We want to avoid feeling like we lost something even if we never started on it It helps to have a sense of humor about this It helps to recognize how our minds play tricks on us We need to be able to laugh at the silliness of our marvelous yet self-tricking brains Brains allow us to make sophisticated plans for the future and solve complex problems At the same time our brains lie to us about how realistic our plans are why we failed last year how committed we are to our new goals and about whatever else will help us feel better in the moment How ridiculous Dont listen to the holiday calories talking Speaking of energy try to avoid setting resolutions that are a direct result of eating too much drinking too much or sitting around during the holidays It is unlikely that the energy level we enjoy from the feast and holiday rest will be our baseline for the year The extra sugar and spirits might make us overly optimistic and prone to making emotional decisions that arent well thought out More broadly it helps to have self-awareness about how our body state and mood are affecting our goal-setting process Holiday calories may also be the direct reason for resolving to lose weight starting in January because I ate too much in December A goal for better health is always good but weight loss resolutions work only when we truly want to enjoy better health and when we are willing to examine the factors in our life that contribute to weight When a resolution is triggered by a desire to lose the holiday pounds we often end up doing crash diets or exercising too much and for not long enough rather than making a slow-and-steady plan for the long-term Dont make resolutions but do resolve problems Taiichi Ohno was a man long on action and short on theory When a manager engineer or student of Taichi Ohno replied to one of his instruction with I understand but failed to take immediate action Ohno would scold Understanding means doing He meant that to understand was not just grasping the meaning of the words but their significance to motivate you to act It is easy to make a resolution to set a goal to make a decision to do something It is just as easy to cross it off of our list to give up When we are solving an important problem for ourselves or someone we care about we are less likely to give up When we have resolved the problem into its component parts and when we take the first action to resolve one part of the problem we are more likely to make progress towards our goal Work on what gives you energy Seeing any resolution through takes energy Some resolutions also give us energy when we work on them Perhaps we want to exercise more eat better lose weight These are things we should all do But in the short term exercise for example takes more energy than it give back We all have some resolutions that are more fun and energize us It could be spending more time with a hobby learning a craft reconnecting with an old friend Resolutions that are energy-positive are easier to get done We can build on the success of the easier wins to find energy and conviction to tackle the things that take more energy Increase the resolution In photography when we want a clearer picture we select a higher resolution Likewise for our annual goals it helps to have a clearer picture of how we are progressing day to day and week to week We need to find ways to keep our plans our actions our progress delays and actions to counter the delays all visible to ourselves and others who care about our success and will hold us accountable Think big Start small Never stop